Longtime MLB Exec Believes Orioles Management Played Major Role In Lineup Failures

The Orioles starting/bench splits are startling, with longtime exec Jim Duquette explaining that Orioles brass keeps making the same mistakes

Jul 18, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson (2) walks to the dugout after striking out against the Houston Astros during the first inning at Daikin Park. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Orioles starting lineup came to life in St. Louis, largely thanks to Pete Alonso and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, to start this nine-game road trip, but it’s been a problem all season.

The chasm between what the starters have provided and what the bench offers has been stark. Seemingly too stark. We broke down the metrics across the board before the Orioles went on the road, and it’s clear management’s hand in this lost season is huge. How they deploy players and the way they lay out the lineup matters, and when they play favorites and force failing players into the top three spots of the lineup every night, it’s a major drag on their offense.

Longtime MLB executive Jim Duquette a former Orioles decision maker, watches the team closely and believes this dynamic between the massive starter/substitute splits is a big problem. And it’s an unforced error that gets repeated over and over as hot players don’t play the next day because of arcane splits, and slumping players don’t get a mental break by sitting on the bench or being dropped down the lineup.

“There are points in time when we've seen this the team be about development, but you're past that,” Duquette told me on “The Daily Flock” this week. “This is about winning. If you use Jeremiah Jackson as an example, you know, when he was swinging the bat well, like he needed to play more. And, okay, he starts to fall off a little bit, but like there are guys along those lines that are deserving more playing time that weren't in the lineup, because you're worried more about the projection or worried about maybe guys that you drafted.

“This is about accountability on your major league roster and trying to win at the major league level. We're not developing anymore. This is a a year of high expectations. And that's the thing that is a little bit bothersome is it would be different if the bench and starters if it was more even, right, then okay, that's whole different story here. But there are guys that should be playing a little bit more, and we've seen this a lot.”

The insistence on Taylor Ward and Adley Rutschman – both dumped at the trade deadline – and Henderson at the top of this lineup has taken a major toll. The numbers are grim.

Not Enough From The Lineup

The Orioles entered play Friday with their starters posing the following stats:

OPS: .716 (20th)                   SLG: .397 (20th)                   OPS+: 98

RBI: 16th                                TB: 19th

As for the subs:

OPS: .752 (6th)                     SLG: .438 (4th)                      OPS+: 123

RBI: 2nd                                  TB: 6th

That is far too great a divide and speaks to baseball failure Mike Elias and his puppet skipper getting it wrong all the time about which players should be in the starting lineup and how that lineup should slow. We’ve seen Blaze Alexander be top 10 in MLB wRC+ from April 28-All-Star break and never bat higher than 8th and seen Dylan Beavers homer in three straight games and end up on the bench and Henderson - in a stretch where he is batting .202 since July 1 (67 games) – bats first or third almost every night, despite actually producing when dropped to fifth for a couple of games.

The Orioles 1-5 batters, for the season, are 23rd in MLB with a .729 OPS and Alonso is doing heavy work even holding that afloat.

“If you hit a home run in a major league game, you automatically deserve a start the next day,” Duquette offered. “It's hard to hit home runs in the major leagues, and then if you do it for a couple days in a row, absolutely you should be in the lineup; the heck with the matchups …

“With the one through five hitters, you know, how bad they've been, it doesn't take a genius to see that Gunner Henderson's been struggling all year. And it goes back to last year, and you can see the frustration on a regular basis when he has an extended period of struggle.

“I still believe in the talent. He's a really talented player, but the value has gone backwards.”

Elias has played no small role in it. The industry sees this for what it is.

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